Saturday, February 15, 2014

Pakistan solar PV to add 772 MW to national grid

Like Malaysia, solar power is quite new in Pakistan.

But if what had been reported is to materialise, Pakistan is on course to develop 772 MW of solar power over the next two years. This is more than what what we will have in Malaysia over the course of 2 years, although we have much more attractive FIT rates.

Pakistan will add 772 MW of solar power to its national grid by 2016, according to figures released by the country's Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB).

There are currently 22 individual solar power projects either under construction or at various stages of development across Pakistan, with a number of these projects awaiting an agreement on a national FIT.

NEPRA has now published its final FIT incentives for PV projects between 1 MW and 100 MW. In the north of Pakistan the FIT will be set at $0.18 cents per kWh (about RM0.60) for an initial ten-year period, halving after that time to just $0.09 cents per kWh (about RM0.30) for the next 15 years.

In Pakistan's southern regions, the FIT incentive comes in a little more generously, at $0.19 cents per kWh for the first ten years, but falling to below $0.09 cents per kWh thereafter.

By comparison, Malaysia's FIT rate for solar PV (as of February 2014) are as follows:

RM0.5440 (about US$0.16) for 21 years - installation size of 10MW to 30MW

RM1.0411 (about US$0.31) for 21 years - small installations size of up to 4kW

Pakistan is also pursuing a number of renewable energy projects for the country’s national grid, and has pledged its backing to the solar industry and the wind industry – the latter of which has an estimated 150 MW pipeline in the offing.

The country is set to embark on a campaign to promote the installation of residential rooftop PV systems designed for self-consumption.

The Green Mechanics: We may well be overtaken by Pakistan simply because we are too comfortable with the current cheap, subsidised prices of energy generated from fossil fuels and in the end making RE ventures, particularly solar power, very expensive in relative term.